There was a prayer experience on Wednesday night that took participants on a self-guided tour through the Centre (sanctuary). Here are some of the stations that were available. If you went through the exercise, I would love to talk with you about your experience! Send me a tweet @lrwhitney or leave a comment!
Writing your part in the Big God Story (Prayer Experience)
Prayer Wall
Prayer Wall
Chapters of our Life
Chapters of my life handout
The cool thing about having The Gathering at Rock Harbor church is the opportunity to see Tru in action. The classrooms are set up as they are throughout the week, so we can see the different response stations for the kids. Today we’ll get to see the class experience in action, so I’m excited for that!
Journal Response
Journal Station
I like the heavy duty journal and Bibles underneath
Prayer Response
Prayers are held on with clothespin and yarn
Prayer Wall
Art Station
Art Station
I’m loving the decorations and stage sets here at RockHarbor Church. Here’s some pictures I snagged throughout the day! (p.s. I seriously need an Eye-Fi Card
Love those trees! (On stage)
Back patio (with water fountains!)
Gourmet Grilled Cheese!!
That's a good looking sandwich!
Matt Guevara at his breakout
Closer view of the timeline
Cool bookcase decorations suspended on stage
Playhouse room set-up for TruWonder
Home Front display in hallway (love the baskets!)
One of the great things about The Gathering is the opportunity to talk with other churches who are currently using or are considering the Tru curriculum. I wanted to hear some of the stories from around the country so I did a few “man on the street” interviews.
Here’s one from Julie, Christy, and Brandy from Mount Paran church near Atlanta, Georgia.
A: We’re just starting TruBlessing and we’re really excited about that. We’ve been using TruWonder and TruStory, and kind of adapting them to use for our youngest kids, but now we’ll be starting a program just for the 2-3 year olds. The greatest thing is, someone donated the hole treehouse set and so the kids have seen it and they are really excited about getting started. We had an open house for Parents so they could check out it out and the response was really powerful.
A: I really like the repetition and the structure. How the little hedgehog always comes out and the part where the kids do the memory verse. Also, HomeFront has been a huge success for us. I feel the parents WANT to do the right thing, but they just aren’t sure what to do. HomeFront really helps with that. Kids are coming in saying that they had already talked with their parents about the lesson, so that’s great.
A: We send it out by email to all the parents on Thursday and then distribute a paper copy on Sunday (to prepare for the Wednesday night service).
Stay tuned for more “man on the street” interviews and some blogging about the breakouts!
* This post is part of an ongoing live blogging series from The Gathering Conference 2012. If I made any mistakes, leave me a comment and let me know or shoot me an email through the Contact page. Thanks! *
Sometimes we view “The Gospel Story” with too narrow a lens. The gospel isn’t just the part where Jesus is born, baptized, crucified and risen again. It’s more than that. It’s the whole story. It includes the part where sin entered the world in Genesis, the part where a promise was given to Abraham, and all the parts throughout history where God worked in big ways and little ways all the way until now. Of course, Jesus’ death and Resurrection were key parts in the story, but those are not the ONLY parts.
This is how Dr. Michelle Anthony opened up her session during the second day of The Gathering.
Michelle continued, explaining some of misconceptions we hold onto as Christians. She recounts a time she took an evangelism class when she was about twenty years old. Everyone was supposed to write down the names of a few friends on little circles and as the class progressed, the goal was to move those little circles into the big “God’s Kingdom” circle. Turns out, Michelle’s circles weren’t moving too much. As the class drew closer to the end, she knew she had to “close the sale” with a neighbor she had named on one of the little circles. One day, (when she didn’t have too much time) she headed next door and started down the outline.
She asked “Do you believe in God as Father and Creator?” The neighbor responded positively. Great! Michelle continued with the key questions in Christianity. This woman next door believed in Jesus as Savior, Son of God. She believed He died for our sins and even believed that He rose from the dead. Michelle, who was now running late, was ecstatic! She answered all the questions right! Michelle started gathering up all her stuff, and proclaimed, “Great, you’re a Christian now!”
To which the neighbor responded, “No, I”m not.” Michelle argued, “Yes, you are” as she continued packing up her stuff.
“No, I’m not”, the neighbor insisted.
Determined to move that little circle, Michelle muttered under her breath, “Yes, you are” and quickly jetted out the door!
Shaking her head, Michelle says to us, “I sure hope God sent someone more spiritual into that lady’s life!”
I remember having those same feelings when I took an evangelism class in college. Evangelism Explosion. Ugh. We too had an outline and specific questions to ask whatever unfortunate soul happened across our path. We memorized verses, analogies and other meaningless jargon. One day, I was sitting next to a guy at Splash Lagoon in Erie. I started down the outline in my head. The first three points went just as planned. Perfect — I CAN evangelize! However, when we hit the fourth point, this guy strayed from the outline. WHAAAAAT? Doesn’t he know he isn’t supposed to DO that? He has to follow the plan! Needless to say, I didn’t get to move any little circles that day.
In contrast, Michelle shared about a friendship that started about 18 years ago. Michelle was at a gymnastics class, waiting for her daughter to finish when a new mom in town, Tina, walked into class with a box of Malibu lights (what are those anyway?). Tina asked Michelle to help her put them together and as the two women monkeyed around with these lights, they shared stories. Michelle shared her story and Tina shared her story. Over nine months, the friendship grew and flourished and when Good Friday came along, the two ladies attended the service together. At the end of the service, Tina went forward and gave her life to Christ. She didn’t follow an outline. She didn’t check off the “5 Key Beliefs You Must Have as a Christian”. Instead, she learned about God’s story and realized she could be a part of it. That’s powerful. That’s real.
Where does this power come from?
The Holy Spirit.
In his book, The Forgotten God, Francis Chan says something to the effect of:
I’m willing to bet that there are millions of church goers across America that have not experienced the movement of the Holy Spirit in the last year and don’t believe they can. Christianity has become more about attendance than the presence of God.
How did this happen?
Shouldn’t there be a difference between someone who has the Spirit of God within them (Christians) and someone who does not. I mean, think about it. The Spirit of God. Wow. That’s powerful.
Instead, we live life like the Spirit has no power at all. We lack joy. We brush off sins, saying things like “Well, I have a tendency towards that.” ”Yeah, I struggle with that. It’s just one of those things!” How about, we say “NO” to the flesh. To take a serious look at our lives and what we are demonstrating to the world.
The Bible tells us that we should be walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). If you check the Greek word for this, Michelle explains, “walking in the Spirit” isn’t a stroll through the garden together. It’s walking in perfect sync — almost military style. There is precision. Every step. Form by form. In complete unity. That takes practice. Serious practice.
And it takes submission. Michelle challenges us, “The Spirit will make you do things you wouldn’t normally choose. You learn a sort of dependence that doesn’t come naturally”. Perhaps He will take us on a deep dark winding road. This relationship with the Holy Spirit moves beyond intellectual understanding. It takes us to a place where we can really glimpse God’s power in our lives.
Don’t you want to be part of that story?
Sometimes God takes us to places that we wouldn’t choose. Michelle shared a story about her son. He was in scuba driving training in preparation to become a Marine Biologist. Between some bad weather, heavy waves, and jagged rocks, a friend died in an accident during training. No one would choose that story. No one would want that to happen. This incident caused a stirring in Michelle’s son and he drew closer to God, and now he’s a new person. Totally changed and totally surrendered to God. The power of the Spirit shining through his life is contagious. That’s God’s story. Sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes it’s tragic. Often it’s unexpected. But if we follow in step with the Spirit, it’s always the best story.
Too often though, we try to live life without God. Without the power of the Holy Spirit. Even in our Children’s Ministry, we push this moral formation tendency onto the kids. We give a lesson and we say, “Now go home and be a servant. Go home and be nicer to your brother.” Just be better, kids. Just try harder.
No.
That’s not right.
We can’t do it. Not really. Sure, we can disciple ourselves and act better. Improve behavior and force kids into “acting right”. But ultimately, that wouldn’t work. This humanistic moral-living theology will be rejected. Kids will walk away because there’s no power in this method.
So let’s try something else.
Let’s jump into God’s Story where we belong. Let’s hang on to the power of the Holy Spirit, and let’s see where that takes us.
* This post is part of series of live blogging posts from David C. Cook’s “The Gathering” conference in Costa Mesa, CA. These notes came from Michelle’s Anthony’s general session. All the good stuff came from her! *
Follow on Twitter with #DCCTG12
Last night, fellow blogger Amy Dolan and I got to catch with with keynote speaker Chris Brown for a few minutes after his super story telling session. After being so impressed with his Jonah series (from several years back) and now again tonight, I wanted to know about his preparation process. Large Group sessions are a big part of what I personally do for Children’s Ministry and I would love to make God’s Word come alive to the kids the way Chris made it come alive to the audience last night.
Here’s what he said:
I come from a family of story tellers. My dad loved to tell stories and my mom loved to read stories. When my mom read me stories, she would have a different voice for every character, and she would make all the sound effects too. That’s when I began to see stories, not just hear them. So, story telling is sort of in my blood, but somewhere along the way, I lost that. I lost the story telling thing.
When I started teaching Youth Group, I got back into it a bit, but with a fatal flaw. I would tell these kids MY story, complete with sound effects and gripping details, and then I would try to throw a verse at the end to make it a “biblical lesson”. Like I would tell about the time that I was riding my dirt bike and fell off and got all cut up and it was a disaster, whatever… then I would throw out 2 Timothy 1:7 where it says that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear.
I got a lot of practice in. I did some work at Christian camps, speaking and MC-ing for the bands. One time, when I had taken a group of my youth kids up to Magic Mountain, some kids came up to me while we were standing in line for a ride. They were all excited and they were recounting the stories I had told them three years ago while at camp… something about a shark and a monkey wrench.
As they walked away, I remember being so impressed with myself. ”Wow, these kids remember what I said three years later! What an impact I’m making”. Then, I heard the small voice of the Spirit saying, “Really, are you proud of yourself?”
I realized these kids remembered MY STORIES. My grand adventures. My scrapes and tumbles and funny one-liners.
When really, they should be remembering GOD’S STORY.
That’s when it really hit me. Standing there in that line at Magic Mountain. I was doing something wrong. It wasn’t just about great story telling. It was about pointing kids to the greatest story of all time — God’s story. I had missed one letter! Instead of “Chris’ story”, it should be “Christ’s story!”
Well, it sent me into quite a tailspin. What had I spent all my time doing for the past few years? Should I continue in Youth Ministry? Should I quit?
I started reading Scripture more and got into some great authors like Garrison Keillor
If you think about it, the stories we tell best are our own. That’s why the kids connected so much with my original stories, because I helped them experience it while I told it. I needed to get inside God’s Word and really make it my story. What it be like if I was there? What would I see? What would I hear? Feel? The Bible is a LIVING WORD with living people filling the pages. This isn’t a boring history book or some poetic mumbo-jumbo, this is a book about real stuff.
The gospels especially are amazing. You saw tonight — one chapter in Mark — and all that stuff going on! Of course, the Old Testament is filled with amazing stories. Even the Epistles. Some people think that because they are letters, you can’t teach them like narratives, but that’s not true. I started viewing Paul’s epistles through the lens of a man sitting in prison… carefully writing to a church he loves but can’t visit… knowing that a death sentence hangs about his head, but still finding joy in life. I stood over Paul’s shoulder as he hurriedly wrote about the guards who were coming to know about Christ and his redeeming work and how God’s Story was spreading. That’s a cool story!
So, the first thing you need to do is really get into the text — into the Bible. Try to get everything you can from the pages…setting, characters, feelings. God provides some amazing details sometimes. Then grab some commentaries (AFTER you read the text) and get a hold of some of the historical background, cultural practices, maybe some geographical information and fill in the details. Stand in that place. Look around. What would the story look like? Remember, these are real people! What would they think? Feel? Say?
And after all that, make sure you give an application. Again, God’s Word isn’t just literature. It’s not just about getting more knowledge. It’s instructions for our daily living! If you can’t pull an application out, you’re not really in the story. Especially with Children’s Ministry, make sure it’s concrete and age appropriate. What’s that verse? Train up a child in the way he should GO, not in the way he should KNOW. Or another translation says in the way he should WALK. We’ve got to be putting these words into practice.
And remember, it’s God’s Story. We can be part of that, and that’s pretty exciting. Don’t make it about you. Keep the focus on the main character and lives will be changed.
{THANKS CHRIS!!!}
* This post is part of series of live blogging posts from David C. Cook’s “The Gathering” conference in Costa Mesa, CA *
Amy Dolan @ Lemon Lime Kids (She asked Chris a question about Healing and Faith)
Lindsey Whitney is the Children’s Ministry Director at East Lake Road Alliance Church in Erie, PA. She manages the Children’s Church program, mid-week Kids for Christ program as well as special events and mentoring programs. She has an excellent volunteer team and is grateful for all the support and encouragement the church members provide. Lindsey has been married to her wonderful husband for over five years and together they have two fun, energetic kids. She operates a family home day care and loves the interaction with kids she has both in the home and at church. She operates Growing Kids Ministry, a Children’s Ministry blog and recently served as one of the contributing authors on KidMin1124. She has been published by Children's Ministry Magazine and Stuff Christians Like and hopes to do more writing in the future. In her spare time, she loves to see the sites in Erie, watch the Steelers with her husband, read books and magazines, visit with family and sneak in a few stops at the local coffee shop. You can find her on Twitter @lrwhitney or on Facebook. You can also email her directly at lindsey@growingkidsministry.com.
PDF 
Charlie Mozee: Very good info. Thanks for helping out....
Lindsey: Amen to that, Vanessa! Best wishes on the contest!...
Vanessa: That kids would be led into a real relationship with God and that in t...
Mike: Great post, wish I was there to get the full experience!...
Synthia: I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your t...